Selection Guide

Which stethoscope is for you?

At the bottom of this page you find a comparative survey of all our stethoscopes, their applications, fields of professional use and acoustic performances (on a scale of 1 - 10)

Features

When purchasing a stethoscope, it is important that you know something about how stethoscopes work. The main features are:

Single-tube or double-tube

The difference between a single-tube and a double-tube stethoscope is the capacity of the tube to displace air. Double-tube stethoscopes have a double internal lumen and can displace more pressure. In older models (for example, the Rappaport stethoscope), two separate tubes were often used. Nowadays everything can be neatly accommodated in one tube. The following stethoscopes have this type of double internal lumen:

Adjustable diaphragm

An adjustable diaphragm actually means that a clock is unnecessary. The traditional clock in a stethoscope is intended to enable low frequencies to be heard. In a stethoscope with an adjustable diaphragm, low frequencies are made audible by exerting slight pressure on the chest-piece (and the skin), while high frequencies are made audible when more pressure is exerted.

Electronic stethoscopes

For some time, more electronic stethoscopes have been appearing on the market in addition to the traditional acoustic stethoscopes. The advantage of these stethoscopes is that the signal can be amplified as much as 24 times. Ambient sounds can be filtered away using modern technologies such as Ambient Noise Reduction (ANR). In addition, fricative sounds generated during auscultation can also be filtered away with the newer models. 3M Littmann calls this technology Frictional Noise Reduction (FNR).